What is the smartest way of dealing with a new manager at work who nitpicks despite not really understanding my job?

[AngelaBeverage]

This is so frustrating.

At my workplace there are several smallish teams (4 - 8 people) and in each team one person is the team leader. This person also does the same job as the rest of us but is paid more for doing more administration, going to the management meetings and feeding back whatever management wants this week, and generally being the point of call for anything that doesn't fall in the standard role remit. I would say that 80% of the team leader's role is just to do her job like the rest of us. 20% extra stuff on top.

In my team, we are all qualified professionals who have been doing this job for quite a long time. We work collaboratively at times, and there is a decent amount of respect for each other's expertise and professionalism. I like my collegues and often learn from them.

Also worth saying that although one person is the team leader, other people in the team might be the authority on a particular aspect of the job. I have a contracted part of my job which makes me the lead on one aspect of our work for the whole staff, and management defer to me on this particular thing because I have experience and qualifications in this field. The same is true for my collegues in other areas.

For reasons best known to themselves, management have appointed a new team leader in our team who has never actually done our job before. She has been extremely heavy handed in her first two weeks, definitely trying to make the point that she's The Boss. She assigns us admin tasks, which is unusual. She says things like "and when I say that's due on Monday, I mean before 8am Monday, not at some point when you feel like it." She has not made the slightest effort to get to know any of us, and she is certainly not coming from any perspective of respect for any of us being able to do our jobs.

We are not a team in need of 'fixing'. In fact, we're doing well and have been leading the way this year. She has come from a background in managing a small business. I think she thinks we're staff. Which, I suppose we are, but it's really getting everyone's back up to be spoken to constantly like teenagers trying to cut corners in their part-time job. We all work hard and take pride in our work.

I have a large piece of work coming out in a couple of weeks and she asked told me she would like a sample so she could check I was on the right track. This is unheard of. (She has never actually done the thing I'm doing, whereas I have done it many times before). I asked her what she wanted to check for, and she told me that she checked my collegue too and found they were overusing pronouns in their writing. WTF?? Anyway, I gritted my teeth and sent her a page of my work and she's sent it back covered in highlighters, and apparently I overuse pronouns too. (I'm actually going to quote her feedback: "You have used two many pronouns. Can you join some sentences together so you use less?" I promise I'm not making this up.)

I can't complain to management (very complicated situation). I'm stuck with her for the rest of the year. How do I manage this without being rude or bursting a blood vessel in my temple?

Please, please, does anyone have any calm and measured advice on how best to deal with this situation?

Agree with PP saying you shouldn't start any conversations with 'but this is how we've always done it and we've never had any issues before'. As that implies you'll never be up for trying anything new even if its genuinely better

Bitch about her behind her back with the rest of the team I'd imagine.

You'd have to ask my boss how she thinks I reacted when she came back. What I think I did was make some overt changes, ignore some of them, thank her for her time. Then I got a half time secondment to a research project somewhere else so that I only cross over with my boss for a max 1.5 days a week. With less time together I do see her strong points and we're settling down OK. I think.

Fundamentally I find it difficult at 56 to have a much younger boss and that's not her fault. Also in my situation she is very strong technically and I really can learn from her which is different from yours.

I guess try and work out why she was recruited and aim to steer her towards that part of the job. Is she there because the team culture isn't approved of and it's thought she'll 'shake things up'? In which case she should be in meetings as much as possible. Is she great at verbal presentation even if not at writing?

Is the editing process done by a different team? Is it possible this team have complained that your team documents require more editing than others, and your team leader is checking if they have a valid issue?

Thank you for your feedback. Just to make sure there are no misunderstandings could you please send me either an edited sample of the work with fewer pronouns or an example of what you mean.

Thank you

If she doesn’t, cut the number by pronouns by let’s say… 5. Job done. If she moans, well she never actually explained what she wanted , did she? So you took her at her word.

If she does and the sample is usable , replace it in your actual document and do some tweaks. If either the sample or example aren’t something you can change(poorly written, confusing, not according to policy etc) send a “confused” email to management to “clarify” what exactly is expected of you.

I'd probably go back with

'Many thanks for these comments.

Which two pronouns would you like removing, if you can suggest alternative sentences to remove these two that would help me understand what it is you are trying to clarify? Is there standard guidance that you are using for this?

Also, which sentences need 'joining together' and why? When you say 'less' do you mean fewer words, sentences or points overall? I feel that joining sentences makes more points in each not less so this is very confusing feedback.

We have an editing phase which would usually pick up errors and so until I understand what it is you are trying to achieve it is going to be difficult to produce this work if I have to make these confusing edits at this stage. I was expecting your feedback to be about the content, as you said you needed to be sure I was on the right track? Have you got any feedback for me on that?

Kindest Regards.

Angela

Since I turned 40 I just don't mess about with idiots like her. Id tell her to her face she's going down like a patronising lead balloon and she's like an annoying wasp at a picnic. Id tell her if she tries to micromanage me I'll start keeping a diary of how inefficient she is and how she clearly doesn't have the expertise to manage us.

Is everyone else in the team having the same issue with her?

If so maybe you could all raise your issues with her manager/HR

It sounds like she promoted beyond her skills and experience and I assume she is still on probation? so now is the time to make it clear there are issues.

She's obviously not got enough to do and is a time waster. Does she need to show results re her own work?

I'd be micro-pestering her, the same way she's doing to you. Dilligently "check" every single thing she asks for just so you know exactly what she wants down to the finest detail. Get her to check every small bit of work you do, in a piecemeal fashion in stages, to check you are on the right track. Submit work at 7am on Monday morning and ring her immediately and relentlessly to check she's received it. Just be onto every tiny detail and don't stop until you get a response. Like the Terminator.

If she does have any of her own actual work to do, she'll soon get fed up and tell you to bugger off and get on with your own work and stop pestering her.

This might not actually be the most effective approach (I agree you have to find people like this amusing but I am also known for being up for a bit of barny) - I would:
Set up a meeting with a stated objective (style alignment) - say that you'd like to get aligned on the new style guidelines and any other management direction that may be appropriate to your work to avoid wasted resource/maximise efficiency.
As PP said for any edicts ask for examples of desired practice and/or how these will be measured. Ask if there has been specific feedback from the top or your end users that has led to this change as you and the rest of the team have been managing your technical output independently thus far without being aware of any issues.

A less antagonistic person than me might just reply "noted", rewrite one or two sentences and re-submut.